Download the free app

Space Is Full Of Cosmic Dust

November 6, 2015

Written byCuriosity Staff

Share

Think dust around your house is annoying? Imagine what a problem it must be around the planet. Cosmic dust, which dates back as far as the formation of the solar system, is present around young stars and it's the material used to help them form. This dust is also the raw material from which planets like Earth are formed. Examples of cosmic dust can be observed all around us, but also up in the sky in the form of comet tails.

Astrophysicist Karel Schrijver, co-author of Living With the Stars: How the Human Body Is Connected to the Life Cycles of the Planets, and the Star, talked to National Geographicabout how this dust affects humans. "There's still an awful lot of dust floating around," she says. "...That dust falls onto the Earth all the time and has from the very beginning. It's why the planet was made in the first place. Nowadays, you don't even notice it. But eventually all that stuff, which contains oxygen and carbon, iron, nickel, and all the other elements, finds its way into our bodies."

Space is one of three sources of dust on Earth. The other two main sources are your home (dead skin cells, pollen, dust mites, and more), and dry, arid places like deserts. In fact, the dust from the Sahara Desert can blow all the way over to the Caribbean.